ATLANTA — All 50 states were represented at the Run with Maud 5K event held on Saturday by the Atlanta Track Club to celebrate the life of Ahmaud Arbery.
According to organizers, over 4,000 people were in attendance spanning 10 different counties and hitting all 50 states. The run raised over $200,000 for the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation.
The run is being held to remember the aspiring electrician who was chased, cornered and killed while running through a South Georgia neighborhood.
His death sparked mass protests and helped fuel the Black Lives Movement. Georgia's House voted unanimously for a bill to overhaul the state's citizen's arrest law following his death.
It also prompted the state to adopt a hate crimes law -- at the time, it was just one of four states without one. This made Arbery's killers face the first federal hate crime conviction in Georgia history.
Two years after his death, Georgia lawmakers designated Feb. 23 as Ahmaud Arbery Day, which memorializes the day his life was cut short.
In addition to celebrating Arbery's life, the run will help raise funds for the foundation established in his name. His mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, spoke of the foundation's goals at a community discussion held on Ahmaud Arbery Day in 2023.
"Ahmaud was gunned down in the middle of the street while he was doing not anything wrong," Cooper-Jones said. "I wanted to create this foundation so no other Black man would be face with those types of interactions while out on a run."
State representatives Sandra Scott, Viola Davis and Kim Schofield said they would run the 2.23-mile course, whose distance references the state-wide holiday.
The run will be held Saturday, May 6, at Centennial Olympic Park. At 6 p.m., the race will start at Atlanta's Beltline Westside Trail.
